1. The first one you will find in Matthew xi. 28: “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and
I WILL GIVE YOU REST.
Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”
Now I never met a person that did not want rest. That man or woman is not living on the face of the earth that doesn’t want rest. We read of the rich man that was going to pull down his barns and build larger, saying to his soul, “Take thine ease, there is plenty laid up in store, so now take thy rest.” Merchants toil day and night to amass money, in order that they may get rest. Men leave their families and friends and go round the world to earn money, in the hope that they may get rest. Sailors plough the sea, and are away from home for months to get money, in order that it may bring them rest. In fact, if rest could be bought in the market, there are many hundreds in London who would be paying a very high price for it; but though money can’t buy it, nevertheless by believing the word of God you can get it without money and without price. “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” Now when we say “we will,” it doesn’t mean much very often. Perhaps we don’t intend to keep our word when we say we will do a thing; or if we do mean to keep it, we very often fail for want of ability to make our promise good. But bear in mind, God never breaks His promise; He never makes a mistake; He never fails to fulfil His word. And the words I have read may be relied on; for they are not the words of man, but of the Son of God—“Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”
This tells us of the only place where we can find rest. There is no other place where a man can by any possibility find rest for his soul. Bear this in mind: it is not coming to some creed, it is not coming to some particular church, or to some particular doctrine, but to Christ. “Come unto Me.” It is the coming to a personal Christ that alone gives peace and rest to the soul.
PEACE.
Now, in John xiv. 27, there is a promise which is very precious to me. Christ says, “Peace I leave with you”; I am going away, but I am not going to take away My peace from you; that I leave behind Me. “My peace I give unto you.” Mark that little expression “My peace”—“My peace I give unto you.” A good many people look for their peace from worldly sources, but when they do find it they don’t get much out of it, for the devil can play on men’s feelings as men play on a harp, and can delude them into almost anything. But if we go to Christ for it, we do get what we want, we get rest for the soul, and until we do go to Him we shall never get it.
There are a good many things which disturb our peace; but nothing can disturb the peace of God. You might take this little island, and throw it right into the Atlantic, and it would make a great stir and commotion in this world, but I don’t think that God would be moved on His eternal throne by it; it would not disturb Him in the heavens, high and lifted up above all the earth. Let us have the peace of God, and then we shall have rest.
Again He says, “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you.” Christ’s joy, not our own joy. When we come to a personal Christ, and our souls are stayed on Him, then we get rest, and peace, and joy. That is a rest that nothing can disturb; that is peace that flows on like a river; that is joy for evermore.
2. Now, the next “I will” is in John vi. 37. I can imagine some of you people saying, “Ah, if I were only good enough to come, I would come, and get this rest, and peace, and joy.” But if you will read the verse I am speaking of, you will find it says, “Him that cometh to Me